Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

As a surprise birthday treat I was taken here on saturday night. Apparently it is the first week of opening although there appears to be an older observatory on site...

https://sherwood-observatory.org.uk/

Keep seeing posts about that place on FB. Looks fab. I've got ticket to an evening event at Greenwich Royal Observatory in Jan, for some talks, a tour of the historic telescope and some observations outside, weather permitting.

For someone with a mild curiosity in astronomy such as myself it was great. We were booked to see 2 films in the planetarium and there were some young kids in the audience who absolutely knew their shit in the follow up Q and A's.

I've only recently gotten into astronomy after having an interest in cosmosolgy at a basic level for a while (e.g. Brian Cox documentaries and a few books, not studying for a PHD or anything).

Recently bought a telescope and having been frustrated for the seemingly 3 months of solid cloud cover, have managed to find and see Saturn with my own eyes through it, which is amazing!

have managed to find and see Saturn with my own eyes through it, which is amazing!

That's what first hooked me when I was a young man, half pissed walking through Covent Garden one night there was a chap with a telescope set up in the street giving people a free look. My addled mind was blown.

Went out to try and get Andromeda tonight as it's only really visible from Queensland for a couple of months a year. Been waiting for a clear night so trooped down to the beach at Scarborough where I can get a clear view of the northern horizon over Bribie Island. Too windy! 😭

So I've scuttled home with my tail between my legs and set up in the garden to wait for the flame and horsehead nebulae on the same frame. Having another go at the Orion nebula while I wait for Orion to rise high enough in the sky to get my main target.

Moon is pretty tonight.

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Rosette Nebula thrown in for good measure, I think I've overdone the filters but hey ho. We're not doing science here, it's just a bit of fun. 🙃

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Went out a couple of weeks ago for a second attempt on Andromeda. Had bought myself some new kit and was keen to try it out on something I had previously shot. Well impressed with the Samyang 135mm f2, weighs a ton but clearly has some bangin glass in it.

This is 85mins of exposure with a Sony a7, Samyang 135mm @f2.8, 800iso, Sky Watcher Mini tracker. Stacked in Siril, Skynet++ and finished in Potatochop.

Super pleased with it.

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That's great! I'm gonna try again tomorrow night, I may need to fashion some kind of wind break for the S50.

Cheers! Yeah I’ve found the wind to be such a pain in arse the last few times I've been out. End up losing so many shots to camera wobble.

This is all I managed before giving up completely tonight, pathetic really. 🤣

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Haha just a wee bit of star trailing there. 😆

Amazing!

You should take a pic of the camera telescope machine for us as well

Lovely work you guys. Not tried any imaging with my scope yet, but mine is only really suited to planets.

Which scope did you get? Keep your eyes peeled at the end of Jan, there is due to be a few nights when then will be 5 or 6 planets in the nights sky all visible at the same time.

Here it is in big yellow thing in the sky mode.

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I bought a scope second hand. It's a bit of a Frankenstein's monster in that it's a Meade Polaris 130 F5 Newtonian, but sits on a Celestron SLT goto mount. I took a punt as I got it for about £70. Came with a 2x Barlow and 4 eyepieces, 2 of which were plossls.

Windy and cloudy tonight, there'll be no stargazing! 😭

That looks good. Cute little thing packs a punch

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDaB0xOSlai/?igsh=ajdtd3NyeWk1NWU2

A-ma-zing!! 👏😲

Quite the bargain!

These are great!